History of West Virginia old and new, Volume 2, Part 9

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Mr. Jacobs' civic loyalty and stewardship found ex- cellent expression in his service as a member of the house of Delegates of the West Virginia Legislature in 1907 and in the special session of 1908. He did much to further effective legislation of constructive order, and was in- fluential in the work of the various house committees to which he was assigned, including some of the most im- portant of that body.

LEE C. PAULL. Aa an underwriter of insurance in vir- tually all lines except that of life, Mr. Paull owns and controls what is undoubtedly the most important agency of its kind in his native city of Wheeling, his insurance business having been ao expanded that it now extends into sixteen different states of the Union, and its general offices occupy the entire building at 1136-38-40 Chapline Street. Mr. Panll was born at Wheeling on the 12th of May,

1889, and is a son of Alfred and Lee (Singleton) Paull, both likewise nativea of Wheeling, where the former was born October 17, 1854, and the latter in June, 1856. The Pnull family has been one of prominence and influence for many years in what is now the State of West Virginia. James Paull, grandfather of the subject of this aketch, was born at Wheeling, became one of the most distinguished members of the bar of Virginia, of which West Virginia was still a part, and after the forming of the new state he served many years as a judge of the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals,. The closing years of his life were passed at Wellsburg, Brooke County.

Alfred Paull has long been one of the leading insurance men in Wheeling, where he is now atate agent for a number of the prominent fire-insurance companies of the country, with offices in the Court Theater Building. He is a re- publiean in polities, and he and his wife are honored mem- bers of the Vance Memorial Presbyterian Church, in which he is serving as an elder. Mr. Paull is affiliated with the Masonic fraternity and is a citizen of prominence and in- fluence in his native city, where he is vice president of the Bank of the Ohio Valley. Of the children of Alfred and Lee (Singleton) Paull the eldest is Mary 1., wife of A. G. Hubbard, a retired manufacturer of Wheeling; Lyde is the wife of L. B. Kirkpatrick, a representative real- estate broker in the City of Rochester, New York; Alfred S. is associated with his father in the insurance business at Wheeling.

Lee C. Paull is indebted to the public schools and the Linsly Institute of Wheeling for his earlier education, which was continued in the Pennsylvania Military College, at Chester. After leaving the latter institution he was a stu- dent in Princeton University, New Jersey, until he had par- tially completed the work of his sophomore year. He left the university in 1907, and for one year thereafter was asso- ciated with his father'a insurance business. He then became identified with the insurance business conducted by Maj. D. E. Stalnaker, and this alliance continued until the death of Major Stalnaker in July, 1918, when he purchased the business of the deceased and assumed full control of the same. He has since continued the enterprise with unquali- fied success, with a large and representative clientage.

Mr. Paull takes loyal interest in all that concerns the civic and material well being of his native city, is a re- publican in politics and holds membership in the Vance Memorial Presbyterian Church. He is affiliated with Wheel- ing Lodge No. 28, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, and is a member of the Fort Henry Club, of which he is a director. He is a director also of the University Club and is a member of the Wheeling Country Club. In the realm of business he is a director of the Dollar Savings & Trust Company; is vice president of the Liberty Transit Company of Wheeling; is vice president of the Camden Coal Land Company of this eity; a director of the Arizona Mossback Mines Company in the State of Arizona, and a director of the MeClaskey Company, incorporated, of Wheel- ing. He owns his attractive residence property in the beau- tiful Highland Park District of Wheeling, and also the building in which his insurance offices are established.

April 6, 1910, recorded the marriage of Mr. Paull and Miss Mary Glessner, daughter of the late William L. Gless- ner, who was one of the principals of the Whitaker-Glessner Company of Wheeling. Mrs. Paull received excellent edo- cational advantages, including those of the Campbell-Hager- man Seminary in the City of Louisville, Kentucky. Mr. and Mrs. Paull have two children: Lee C., Jr., who was born December 10, 1911, and William Glessner, who was born January 10, 1915.

JOHN B. GARDEN is the only survivor in Wheeling of the group of Wheeling business men who started the pioneer enterprise of the Wheeling Electric Company nearly forty years ago. For nearly twenty years the Wheeling Electric Company was an individual and independent organization, supplying electricity for commercial use in the Wheeling District. With the rapidly increasing use of electricity it became impossible for a company supported by local capital to keep pace with the requirements, and about that time

HISTORY OF WEST VIRGINIA

the Wheeling Electric Company merged into a great cor- poration known as the American Gas and Electric Company, with headquarters in New York City. The public utilities owned and operated by this corporation cover a large section of the Middle West. The Wheeling District embraces many of the cities and industrial towns on both sides of the Ohio River, and Mr. Garden is general manager for this district. There was recently completed at an expense of over $10,- 000,000 one of the largest electric generating plants in the country at Becch Bottom, some miles above Wheeling, and this plant, with its steam turbine generators, represents practically the last word in a continuous electrical develop- ment that has been going on at Wheeling and vicinity for nearly forty years, and in which Mr. Garden has had an uninterrupted participation.

Mr. Garden was born at Wheeling February 27, 1860, son of Alexander T. and Mary M. (Bankard) Garden and grandson of David Garden, a native of Scotland, who settled at Wheeling as early as 1816. He was a tanner, and he established and operated a tannery at North Wheeling until 1858. He then returned to his farm at Glen's Run, above Wheeling, where he died in 1686, at the age of sixty-five. Alexander T. Garden, his son, also became a tanner, and was associated with his father's industry for many years. Alexander T. Garden, as well as his son John B., was also associated with the establishment of the Wheeling Electric Company during the '80s. His home vas in Wheeling from about 1870, and at one time he was a member of the city council.

The mother of John B. Garden was Mary Bankard, who was born May 24, 1834, and died May 24, 1902. Her father, James Bankard was of the firm Stackt .n, Bankard & Com- pany, window glass manufacturers, owning and operating one of the first glass factories in Wheeling. Mary Bankard was educated in Wheeling and was married to Mr. Garden in 1852. Her three children were: Mrs. John M. Sweeney, John B. Garden and David A. Garden. The latter for a number of years was with the Whitaker-Glessner Company, and is now living in St. Louis, Missouri.

John B. Garden acquired a public school and business college education, and as a young man became absorbed in the progress of electrical development, which at that time had hardly extended to any practical or commercial pur- poses. A few years later he became an associate with his father and with A. J. Sweeney and John M. Sweeney in installing a small plant to furnish electricity for electric lighting at Wheeling. This plant was installed in the shop of A. J. Sweeney & Son on Twelfth Street, opposite the Hotel Windsor. Sufficient electricity was generated for about forty lights, used at first in stores only. About two years later the incandescent system of lighting came into use, and the men in the company secured an old skating rink at Twenty-second and Chapline for a larger plant. Wheel- ing was the fifth city in the United States to use alternating machines. Here a 650 light machine was installed. Grad- ually the original capital of $15,000 was extended to $20,000, but the dividends were paid on the stock for ten years. All the increasing capital and surplus was rein- vested in equipment, and after several years a new location was bought at Thirty-sixth Street and MeColloch Avenue. The facilities there sufficed only twelve years, and the next location was at Forty-second and Water streets, where a building was provided five times as large as that at Thirty- sixth Street, yet in three years' time it was too small. Then in 1915, a large tract of ground eleven miles above Wheeling. at Beech Bottom, was purchased, the selection of the site being due to the combination of an adequate water supply with an inexhaustible supply of coal for fuel.

It should also be noted that Mr. Garden and his asso- ciates in the Wheeling Electric Company put in operation the first electrically operated cars at Wheeling, and this was also a pioneering work, since there were only a few cities in the entire country with electric transportation.

Mr. Garden served some years as a member of the Wheel- ing Board of Education, a member of the Board of Trade, the Second United Presbyterian Church, and is a director in the Community Savings Bank.

June 17, 1885, he married Miss Mary Ralston Sweeney,

daughter of Andrew James and Maria Elizabeth (Enn Sweeney. A review of the life of Andrew J. Sween a his family is given on other pages. Mrs. Garden forna years has been one of West Virginia 's most prominer ch women, and she is now president of the State Federanon Women's Clubs. She is also prominent in the Daughrs the American Revolution, having served as regent of he ing Chapter; and she is active in other organizations M and Mrs. Garden have two children, George Alan, agra uate of West Virginia University and a Wheeling att ne and Gertrude, who was one of the West Virginia gil sent by the General Federation of Women's Chs France during the World war. She is the wife of t. Throp.

ANDREW J. SWEENEY. The family of which th la A. J. Sweeney was in some respects the most consfuo representative has for nearly a century been identifie wi the manufacturing, industrial, civic and cultural affi's the Upper Ohio Valley.

Thomas Sweeney, father of Andrew J., came to Whelir from Pittsburgh in 1830. Thomas Sweeney was a nate Ireland. He married Rosanna Mathews, of Pittsburgh wl was the mother of the following children: Andre Rebecca, Thomas Campbell and Robert H. At Whelir he bought the shops and property of the North Whelin Manufacturing Company, and with his brothers and sor he continued this industry until about 1874, being succede by his son A. J. Sweeney. This industrial enterprise (rin a period of half a century manufactured a large and tric line, consisting of engines, mill machinery, foundry camg and also steamboats. Andrew J. Sweeney was admit dt a partnership in the firm in 1858. He in turn, in 1874too in his son, John M. Sweeney. The industry was gati broadened after the accession of Andrew J. Sweeney t fu control in 1875, extending to the manufacture of Ilin mill, steamboat and other machinery and also agricuura machinery and implements.

Andrew J. Sweeney was born at Pittsburgh, Januty 1827, and died February 14, 1893. He was not only afur usually vigorous and successful industrial leader, but ce 0 Wheeling's most devoted citizens, and held the offit o mayor for a longer time than any other one man. H wa first appointed to fill an unexpired term in 1855. Howa eleeted in the years 1861, 1862, 1865, 1867 and 1875an served from the latter year until 1881. He was a coloit o militia during the Civil war, in addition to being he: o the municipal government. In 1876 President Gran ap pointed him commissioner for West Virginia to the Cen tennial Exposition at Philadelphia. He was also apporter in 1873, by President Grant, as a commissioner to th Vienna Exposition and in 1878 to the French Expositie a Paris. He was prominent in all the Masonic bodi a Wheeling.

Two quotations from Wheeling papers at the time chi: death will indicate some of the other qualities in this mi of genius. "Colonel Sweeney was an inventor of no sma re nown, a number of valuable patents having been grated him and his intimacy with all forms of machinery an his knowledge of applied mechanics was second to no me in this community. A proverbial hard worker, it was a tost his invariable custom to close a day of toil as grimy a the humblest man in his employ and it was conceded that ven at his age few men could stand more hours of labor han he. For a generation he was intimately connected ith all that went to benefit this community, and all suchim- provements as to street railway, the electric lighting im- pany, the paid fire department, the fire alarm telegraph, ind the many new bridges and shipping facilities foun in folonel Sweeney a stanch and powerful friend.

"In his carcer Mr. Sweeney saw many vicissitudes. po- litically, in the country's history and in a business ay, and no man was ever more equal to an emergency thathe. Some of his official acts will long be remembered tohis credit, as they showed promptness, courage and intelligice as well as independence. Many people yet rememberthe stormy scenes one night in 1879 when he was mayor ofthe city and the Pittsburgh, Wheeling & Kentucky Rail ad

HISTORY OF WEST VIRGINIA

Company was granted the right of way for its Benwood extension. The Baltimore & Ohio Company opposed, and, realizing that increased facilities were for the city's good, :, Mr. Sweeney with customary decision of character threw the whole force of his authority in favor of carrying out the rights granted by the city and personally supervised the all night work of laying the 'Pewky' track."

In 1818 Andrew J. Sweeney married Mary R. Moore. Her father was John Moore, for many years superintendent of the city waterworks and at one time head of the machine shop of John Moore & Company, an industry that became amalgamated with the industrial interests of the Sweeneys. Mrs. Mary Sweeney died in 1860, at the age of thirty years. She was the mother of four children. The oldest, John M., for a number of years associated with his father as a steam- hoat builder, also interested in the Wheeling Eleetrie Com- pany and associated with the building and operation of Wheeling's first electric street ear, has had a long and prominent career as a mechanical engineer, lived for many years in Chicago, was an expert engineer for the Govern- ment during the World war, located at Pensacola, Florida, and is now living retired at Los Angeles. He married Miss .Julia Garden, a sister of John B. Garden of Wheeling. The second child, Nellie B., had a wide reputation as a vocalist in concert work, and died at Washington City, widow of David Palmer. Miss Rose M. Sweeney, the third child, also cultivated the family gift for musie to a degree of high excellence, was a student abroad at London and Paris, was at one time dean of the College for Women at Richmond, Virginia, and later assistant dean at Linden- wood College at St. Charles, Missouri, and at West Virginia University at Morgantown. The youngest child of Andrew J. Sweeney's first marriage was the late Andrew Thomas Sweeney, who died September 18, 1918, shortly after com- pleting four years of consecutive service as sheriff of Ohio County. lle had also been mayor of Wheeling six years, married Kate B. Lukens, who with their one daughter, Eleanor M., survive.

In 1861 Col. A. J. Sweeney married Maria E. Hanna, who died at Wheeling October 8, 1909. She was born at Cadiz, Ohio, in 1838, daughter of Rev. Thomas Hanna, a prominent minister and for many years pastor of the I'nited Presbyterian Church at Cadiz. Mrs. Sweeney was a devoted member of the same faith, and at the time of her death was active in the Seeend Church at Wheeling and had served as president of the Women's Missionary Society of the Wheeling Presbytery. Her mother was a daughter of Robert Patterson and a descendant of the historie Van Meter family which made the first settlement near West Liberty, West Virginia, about 1763, building Fort Van Meter four miles from West Liberty.

Mrs. Maria Elizabeth Sweeney was the mother of nine children, and six of them survive her. The oldest is Mary R., who is Mrs. John B. Garden of Wheeling. (See J. B. Garden's sketch on other pages.) Sarah Patterson, who has gained distinetion in musical circles, is the wife of Charles O. Roemer of Cumberland, Maryland. They have two children, Andrew S. and Dorothy D. William H. Sweeney, who is a graduate of Washington and Jefferson College and Virginia University, is associated with the Duquesne Light and Power Company of Pittsburgh and is a director of an orchestra in that eity. He married Miss Mullen, of Wisconsin, and has four children, Frank M., Marian E., Mary A. and Virginia M. Frank B. Sweeney is in the telephone business at Los Angeles, California. Ile married Elizabeth Vorhees, of New Jersey. Col. Walter C. Sweeney is the military figure of the family, served in the Spanish American war, in the Philippines and in the Regular Army, was an American officer in France, was decorated by both the French and American governments, received special mention by the British Government, and is now stationed at Boston. He married Anne E. MeConnell, a daughter of N. W. MeConnell, of Helena, Montana. Mr. and Mrs. Sweeney have three children, Elizabeth .J., Aniee E. and Walter C. The youngest of the family is James Edgar Sweeney, who is chief elerk of the Laughlin plant of the American Sheet & Tin Plate Company. He lives at

Wheeling, and married Stella, daughter of Capt. John H. Crawford. They have one daughter, Mary Elizabeth.

WILLIAM M. DUNLAP, who has been for half a century actively identified with the handling of real estate and whose operations in West Virginia have been of broad seope and importance, maintains his residence at West Alexander, Pennsylvania, near the West Virginia line, and his long and worthy association with affairs in the latter state justify his special recognition in this publication.

In an historic way it may be recorded that James Curtis took up one of the first three farms in Ohio County, West Virginia, as now constituted, he having come here in 1775, in company with James Hardesty and James Morgan, whose names became associated with the other two pioneer farins. The old Curtis homestead farm is in the center of Liberty Distriet, on Buffalo Creek, and the property remained in the possession of the Curtis family until about 1900. Sala thiel, a son of James the pioneer, hecame one of the carly lawyers of this section, when members of the bar rode the circuit in their professional work. He resided on the old home farm and was one of the leading men of his day in this seetion of West Virginia. Ile had marked ability. and was the author of a book of poems and also a book of musie. lle died in 1868, when about eighty eight years of age. He was one in a family of ten children, all born on the old homestead and all except one of the number lived to pass the age of eight years, Jolin, an enterprising farmer, having been ninety-six years of age at the time of his death. James Curtis was a great hunter and well equipped for the hardships of pioneer life on the frontier. After settling in what is now Ohio County he went forth as a patriot soldier in the Revolution from Frederick County. Maryland. He became the owner of about 400 arres of land in Ohio County. His son John lived and died on the an- eestral homestead, and was about ninety-three years oldl at the time of his death. Joseph, another son, died when about eighty, he having been a large landholder. James, another son, went to Jacksonville, Illinois. The daughter, Ruth Eliza, was born in 1812, on the old homestead, and as a young woman she became the wife of Samuel Dunlap, who was born on an adjoining farm in 1801, a son of William Dunlap, who with four of his brothers came to this locality from Martinsburg, Virginia. Joseph Dunlap, one of the brothers, later went to Indiana; another brother went to Peoria County, Illinois; and Salathiel Dunlap established his home at Mount Pleasant, Ohio. Another hrother settled in Kentucky. William Dunlap died about 1851, and of his four sons it may be recorded that James went to Crawford County, Ohio, and was a resident of Columbus, that state. at the time of his death; Mason, who died at West Liberty, Ohie County, aided in establishing the old academy at that place, where he also built the large hotel which he eon- dueted until his death; Samuel remained in Ohio County until his death; William resided at West Liberty and died in 1883, at the age of eighty-two years, his wife having died three years previously. Samuel Dunlap was the owner of the Pleasant Hill Nurseries, which he made one of the hest in this section. The Curtis men were old-time Virginia democrats, and the Dunlaps were originally whigs and later republicans. Early representatives of the Dunlap family owned slaves, but set them free prior to the Civil war. "Aunt Polly," one of the number. being well remembered hy old settlers in Ohio County. Of the nine children of Samuel Dunlap eight attained to maturity: Virginia died at the age of twenty years; Engene died in 1913, at Wash- ington, Pennsylvania, where he had served a number of years as county recorder; William M., to whom this sketeh is dedicated, was the next in order of birth; Emma became the wife of Lewis B. Morgan; Florence O. married Cambell Riee and after several years of pioneer experience in Nebraska they returned to Wheeling; Matilda is the wife of Samnel Ullum and resides at Wheeling; Eudora is the wife of Calvin Hare and lives at Wheeling; Frank died in infaney; John was a merchant at Claysville, Pennsylvania. where he died in 1916.

William M. Dunlap was a boy when he earned his first five dollars hy mowing eight acres of hay with a seythe.

HISTORY OF WEST VIRGINIA

At the age of sixteen years he went forth as a soldier in the Civil war. He enlisted in Company D, Twelfth West Virginia Infantry, under Captain William B. Curtis, who later became colonel of the regiment and still later. brigade commander in the Second Division, Twenty-fourth Army Corps. Mr. Dunlap's company made an enviable record, and of the 300 medals issued by Congress in the war period three were gained by members of this company. Mr. Dun- lap first served under General Milroy in the Valley of Vir- ginia, and he took part in many engagements in the course of his loyal eervice as a gallant young soldier of the Union. After the war he studied law at home, his admission to the bar, at Wheeling, having occurred November 2, 1870. In 1871-2 he had an office in Wheeling, West Virginia, and in the latter part of 1872 was on the home farm. He con- tinued in the practice of law for a number of years, mainly in Ohio and adjoining counties. He has ever been a stal- wart advocate of the principles of the republican party, and has long been affiliated with the Grand Army of the Republic. He has dealt extensively in coal lands through- out West Virginia, as well as in Pennsylvania and Ohio. He gave fourteen years to the handling of 6,000 acres in the Wheeling District, and he paid a total of $26,000 in options on this property before he sold it. He is now en- gaged in coal operations on a tract of 600 acres, but has been primarily a dealer in coal lands rather than a coal operator. He has maintained his residence at West Alex- ander, Pennsylvania, since 1897. As administrator and ex- ecutor he has settled many estates, and in his extensive real-estate operations, involving millions of dollars within his fifty years of activity, none of his clients have lost a cent through his interposition, the result being that his reputation has ever been unassailable. He is a member of the Presbyterian Church in his home village.

Mr. Dunlap's first wife, who was Harriet Hare, of Wash- ington County, Pennsylvania, continued as his devoted com- panion and helpmeet for twenty-three years, when the gracious ties were severed by her death. They had six children: Herbert E. is a representative member of the Wheeling bar and a patent attorney in this city; Olive D., widow of John Wallace, resides at Woodlawn, a suburb of Wheeling; Charles E. has a position in the office of the Wheeling Steel & Iron Company; John H. is engaged in the undertaking business at West Alexander; Amy C. is a professional nurse employed in the Ohio Valley General Hospital at Wheeling; and Alverda L. is employed in the X-ray department of that institution. For his second wife Mr. Dunlap married Mary Yates, who died ten years later, leaving no children. His present wife, whose maiden name was Mary E. Truesdell, is a daughter of Joel Truesdell, who was a prominent merchant at West Alexander.

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History of West Virginia old and new, Volume 2, Part 9

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